The following description provides a summary of information and is not an admission that any of the information provided or publications referenced herein is prior art to the present application.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a lung disease often associated with a history of cigarette smoking in which there is progressive and irreversible obstruction of the airways as well as destruction of the alveoli. The prevalence of COPD in the US is 13.1 million people and it is the fourth leading cause of death with 126,005 deaths of persons aged ≧25 years in 2005. Approximately 12 million adults have undiagnosed COPD and emergency room visits and hospitalizations (700,000/year in US) due to exacerbation of COPD are a huge financial burden to health care. The total economic burden of COPD is almost $50Bn, with $30Bn of direct health care expenditures.
Patients with symptoms such as chronic cough, chronic sputum production, dyspnea, or a history of inhalation exposure to tobacco smoke, occupational dust may be diagnosed with COPD using a spirometer to measure pulmonary function (pulmonary function tests—PFTs). The most common measures of pulmonary function are the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and the forced vital capacity (FVC). Many people with COPD do not deteriorate, or deteriorate very slowly, whereas some people deteriorate rapidly. The latter group would benefit from more aggressive treatment of infections, glucocorticoid or bronchodilator therapy, and enrollment in aggressive smoking cessation programs.
Currently, there is no method of predicting the prognosis of COPD patients, for example, to discriminate between individuals with COPD whose lung function is likely to decline and individuals with COPD with more stable lung function.